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The United States Navy Memorial

Navy Memorial Honoring the Men & Women of the Sea Services

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S-44

Ship Designation: 
SS-155
Date Lost: 
Thursday, October 7, 1943
Engagement in the Aleutians
At 2030 on the night of 7 October, S-44 made radar contact on what was mistakenly determined to be a small merchant. She closed the range on the surface and engaged with her deck gun. The contact, which was a destroyer, immediately returned fire, scoring hits below the waterline in the control room, the conning tower and the forward battery compartment.. The CO on the bridge ordered the control room to submerge and sounded the diving alarm. The boat did not submerge, for reasons which are not clear in the statements of the two survivors. The CO then ordered S-44 to be abandoned, and had a white pillow case waved from the forward hatch. The destroyer ignored the white flag and scored several more hits. The gun crew and the bridge watch, about eight men in all, made it into the water before the ship sank. All but two died in the heavy seas and freezing water. The two survivors were picked up by the destroyer and spent the remainder of the war at forced labor in the copper mines in Ashio, Japan.

Lost At Sea Log

Number of sailors in this log: 56

Name Service Branchsort descending
MOMM 1c Paul Cutright USN
F 1c John Wood USN
TM 3c William Morris USN
GM 1c Clarence Moss USN
MOMM 2c Dale Thompson USN
RM 1c John Stephens USN
Lt James Stephenson USN
CTM Harold Stromsoe USN
Sea 1c Robert Warburton USN
QM 3c Frank Turner USN
TM 1c Joe Velebny USN
MOMM 2c Holly Howard USN
Sea 2c Thomas Cooper USN
CPhM Tom Cleverdon USN
EM 3c Patrick Carrier USN
MOMM 2c Charles Calvert USN
CCS Leo Butters USN
LCdr Francis Brown USN
Sea 1c Tobias Biller USN
Sea 1c Billy Beck USN

Pages

Prepared by: J.P. O'Hara, CDR, USN (Ret.)